Bisnest Loves Dynamics 365

If you haven't already heard, Microsoft is launching a new Dynamics product suite called Dynamics 365. The core idea is to collect all different products that go under the name Dynamics to one coherent set where functionality can be deployed as separate modules as customers need that functionality. These modules are also natively integrated with each other tearing down the walls between different business application silos that traditionally are created when deploying business applications for different purposes.

Pretty much the same as the core idea behind Bisnest too. Dynamics 365 is also focusing on small and midsize businesses (SMBs) in the same way as Bisnest is. However, Dynamics 365 is leaning more towards the high end of the SMB sector and Bisnest is focusing on the low end, so there will be plenty of room for both.

Similar Views on Modern Business Software

Give Customers More Freedom to Choose

There are many areas where we share the same views with Dynamics 365. For instance, we believe that one solution does not fit all, and customers must have a way of choosing. At the same time, customers must not be forced to pay for what they did not choose. This is achieved in both Bisnest and Dynamics 365 by wrapping functionality into modules that customers can pretty freely deploy as they see fit. If you think of functionality, the modules in Bisnest tend to be smaller than in Dynamics 365.

Create a Coherent Customer Experience

All of your employees have some role in creating the customer experience for your customers. The roles vary quite much and they require also different levels of access to the data in your business applications. Because of traditional pricing, a large portion of a company's employees just got left outside the applications that were used to create the customer experience. This of course creates a very confusing experience for your customers, and can even viewed in a very negative light, if your customers think that you don't want to invest in proper tooling for all your employees.

Dynamics 365 introduces the "Team Member", which is a very low-cost license to Dynamics 365 that generally allows only read-only access to data, or very limited editing capabilities. In Bisnest, most of the read-only functionality is provided for free. We can also recognize users that don't have a valid Office 365 license, and strip out all UI elements that would require an Office 365 license. This is important when getting all those deskless workers and field workers involved in working with Bisnest even if they don't otherwise use Office 365.

Tear Down Business Application Silos

When you deploy software that you need to run your business, you very often also create isolated silos that have a varying or non-existent level of integration between them. They still contain overlapping data, requiring you to jump between different applications with different UI principles and navigation, and even worse, forcing you to manually make sure that data between these applications are in sync.

In Dynamics 365, you have the Common Data Model that defines all entities used by all different Dynamics 365 applications. Depending on what a user has been enabled to do, various UI elements "light up" and allow a user to work with the entities in the Common Data Model. Instead of jumping from one application to another, you just move from functionality to functionality. Partners can also produce applications that integrate with Dynamics 365 and the Common Data Model.

In Bisnest, we too have a single data model that provides entities for all functionality in Bisnest, and depending on what roles have been selected for a user, the UI will contain elements for working with entities that you are allowed to access in a certain role. These elements are integrated into all views creating one coherent User Interface that is familiar to use.

Simple and Intelligent

Dynamics 365 takes business applications towards the right direction, making deploying and using them more simple. In Bisnest, we want to take thinks even further, even to the edge of ridiculously simple.

Simple to use also means that the software is in control of what needs to be done so that users don't have to worry about things that can be taken care of by software. This means creating more intelligent functionality, because intelligent is intuitive and simple. This is also an area where both Dynamics 365 and Bisnest share the same views.

So Why does Bisnest Love Dynamics 365?

Simply put, it makes our job easier. Since we share so many principles and views on the same software sector, it also means that we get a very loud trumpeter in Microsoft trumpeting the same message that we try to get out to the big audience. It is about time that businesses can start making full benefit of cloud services also with their business software instead of just running on-premise business software on someone else's servers and call the cloud services. This is something that we have been writing about on this blog ever since the first article.

We are focusing on small businesses, and we are well aware of that at some point our customers will grow too big for Bisnest, and we can grow with them only to a certain extent without sacrificing our smallest customers, who in turn at some point may grow too big for us. This is why we have from the start talked about our "Dynamics CRM Online Upgrade Tool" as an easy way to move from Bisnest to Dynamics CRM when Bisnest is no longer enough for your company.

Well, with the Common Data Model in Dynamics 365 with entities and APIs properly documented and fully supported to be integrated with, that plan is now one huge step closer. Since we have our own data model, which is not the same as the Common Data Model, but similar, it is very easy to map the data in the Bisnest Data Model to the Common Data Model in Dynamics 365, and move a tenant from Bisnest to Dynamics 365, without loosing a single piece of information. And this "Dynamics 365 Upgrade Tool" will most likely be published as a partner contribution by us to the AppSource, the catalogue where Dynamics 365 partners can publish their applications and add-ons that integrate with Dynamics 365.